Hello All, just wanted to share about a product I recently picked up, with a short review. I ordered a set of 'test pipes' from eBay, made buy TopSpeed for my f355. Out of the box they are of pretty good quality considering the price. Nice welds, although they could be a bit thicker, but might not need to be. Came with hardware, no need for it though. Shipping was fast and they are set up for both 2.7/5.2 Installation was a bit tough. I read online that they are 'too long' in another thread, which may or may not be true. I found that when laid next to the factory cats they are about 10 to 15mm longer. However this is not that big of a deal as you can knock the coupler back and then shorten them if need be. I'd rather too long than too short especially with the different aftermarket headers out there. I was in a bit of a rush to get them in. Clearance could be a bit better; they are constructed to look like a cat, but the design is a bit wide. I will, at some point soon, get the car back on the lift for a full exhaust adjustment. You could probably spend a good few hours adjusting your exhaust on this car. The best practice would be to loosen everything after the headers except the bypass valve and then set your muffler height and gradually tighten all connections to get a good seal and positioning without any stress points to any particular exhaust component. Overall, I can vouch for the TopSpeed test pipes, they may need to be trimmed and you may need to tweak things a bit, but in the end you get the desired result for about half the price of other 'test pipe' suppliers. Definitely feel the engine breathing much better, and the heat loss in the engine bay is significant (my main reason for doing this). Sound seems a bit louder but nothing I would call major as far as changes go. Idle is almost identical, just a bit louder. Hope this helps for anyone considering.
2.7 and there are no codes. But there would never be on a 2.7 car, not unless you had considerable restriction of the exhaust.
Did you do the y pipe on the 355 as well? I'm just looking at these and nobody makes a catless y pipe with the diverter you see int he stock unit.
Yes they do......some of the sponsors on this site have these ready to ship. Catless Y-pipes have been around for along time.
No, I haven't done the y-pipe. But I may just gut it as the bypass valve doesn't really open on the smog test run. I think it ran at 2500rpms on the dyno for the test so I'm pretty sure the bypass is closed???
thanks for the write-up. May seem like a strange question, but is the exhaust "smelly"? A few people on here have commented that the exhaust stinks, just wondering your experience. It's been putting me off test pipes and would be interested in your comments. Thanks. Bob.
thus far I haven't noticed anything inside the car. I am also not hyper-sensitive to that as I work around cars all day, many of which are carbureted. I also run about 94 octane, not sure if that will matter on the smell issue. Outside the car I notice a faint odor, like the cats have been removed. . . .
Sure its going to smell. When you eliminate the cats on any of these machines the exhaust smells stronger by at least 10X and if you stand near the back of the car it will also burn your eyes. The only time it gets into the cab of the car is if you are stopped at a light and the wind is blowing from behind otherwise its not a problem. When I start mine up in the garage, I make sure to roll the back end out of the door a couple of feet in the winter and all of the way out when the weather is good. Actually the smell is a little retro....takes you back to the 60s when there were no emission controls.
As far as getting a bypass pipe, I would just have one made. Which is probably what I'm going to do. I found a few vendors that have them and sell them, but for $1500?? I could have 5 of them custom made for that price. I mean, we are talking about a simple y-pipe with a few flanges at the end . . .
Hello Everyone, For those of you who are interested in our Y-Pipe, please click on the link below to see a new thread I just created with special FChat pricing: http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?p=140521945#post140521945 By the way, I don't think it would be a very easy task to create the pipe on your own. We had to make several versions of both(2.7 and 5.2) before we got it right. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks! Jeff [email protected]
I have the same test pipes and my car is a 1995 Spider. Yes, the exhaust does smell stonger than with cats, but the sound and fire that exits the pipes at high RPM gear changes are priceless!
I read about your experiences. My 355 spider has 30k km and technical registration control states my emission norm is jumped.(in other words a poluter car;-), I dont believe this realy for such low km . What is your experience with emission control for 355? ever had troubles passing? My car does smell fuelly when starting but after 10-15 minutes is REALY changes.........and becomes better or far less smelly. Dealer says i need to replace cats, lambdas etc...$$ thanks
thanks I'm looking into doing this as well. What would be the difference from gutting the stock cats? Seems a lot less expensive or do you rather keep the originals and have the test pipes installed?
Not quite what I asked...I am looking for one with the correct flow diverter on the 2.7. The stock unit has one running from the base of the y up to the P-valve. Without it there are...issues.
The remnants of the catalyst will still cause the underhood temperatures to rise, and you'll still have a lot of turbulence unless you slice 'em open and completely polish them out. The test pipes are a better option IMHO.
